Pc ports + firewall + proxy = A bit confused :(

[DomainEmpire.com]

Hi all,

I want to increase my pc knowledge as much as possible and, considering it's now a bit scarce, I'm looking for your help to understand better the following concepts:

- What's the difference within a firewall and a proxy ? I know something but not enough on this topic ...
Can a pc have 2 or more firewalls or proxies at the same time ?

- How many ports have an Ip ? Is there a list of all possible ports ? (i.e. 25 8080 etc ...).
In this moment I'm having problems with some ports but I don't know exactly with what of them so I'm taking this opportunity to study better this matter ...

Without going in details on when this happens, for example, here's an alert message I get: "Windows socket error 11001".
And so I've even one more question: what're sockets ?
And then, how may I take control over all my ports, opening/closing/protecting them ?
Is there a software to make my life easier ?

I know I've really a lot to earn but I've time and wish to do this.
Where can I find manuals/ebooks to study deeply all these concepts, please ?

Many thanks in advance for your help; please, post here or PM me with more info. on all aspects where you might be of any help.
From my part, I'll be always ready to return the courtesy.

 

[Packrat]

Start here:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm

 

[DomainEmpire.com]

Thanks Packrat, beginning is an important step for me

 

[Whois-Search]

Firewall :

http://www.netlingo.com/lookup.cfm?term=firewall

Proxy :

http://www.netlingo.com/lookup.cfm?term=proxy or proxy server


Your Computer has Ports for different things ( its to do with binary )

e.g. Port 21 is used for FTP

Firewall software blocks ports to the outside world.

Your ip address is only your link to the internet.



You can check which ports you have open at :

https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 sheilds up

Click Proceed > Click All Service Ports

This checks your Internet service ports of your computers first 1056 TCP ports


Sockets are different and in that case are windows errors :

http://support.osprey.net/socket/socket.html


Make sure its not a virus Luigi :

http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/21659.html

 

[DomainEmpire.com]

Many thanks for all your useful links Andrew, I'll take a deep look at each site this Monday with all calm, few hours to spend in my culture ;-)

I've McAfee, Zone Alarm, SPyBot, AdAware and tons of other softwares to protect myself, to clean unused registry keys, spywares, cookies etc but still no idea where the problem is.
I'll consult these sites to increase my culture and, probably with the time, I'll understand more about my current situation too.